At least 20 planes destroyed at Walterboro airport after possible tornado

WALTERBORO, S.C. (WCSC) - A powerful line of storms early Monday morning damaged more than two dozen planes at the Lowcountry Regional Airport in Walterboro, destroying at least 20 of them.

Strong winds pushed one plane into a hangar at the facility and lifted another up and over a fence, dropping it onto a road. Some debris was also found almost a mile away.

“We have a lot of planes that are totaled,” airport manager Tommy Rowe said. “It just looks like a war zone.”

One hangar had its entire roof ripped off while two others were damaged.

A World War II plane parked here temporarily also was moved about 100 yards by the powerful winds. It was facing in the opposite direction before being twisted and slammed into a hangar.

Rowe is confident this was a tornado.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt," Rowe said. "As a matter of fact, some of the county people have said they can see the path of the tornado from looking behind those hangars. They can see the tops of the trees that were cut off. They don’t have any doubt that it was a tornado that came through.”

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